1,000 Greatest Drivers: Scott Sharp

The most underrated driver of the CART/IRL split period.

I decided to start with Sharp because he and Sterling Marlin were my two biggest revelations when I began conducting advanced statistical analyses. I thought I understood both of those drivers’ careers as I did watch large portions of them but it turned out there were no drivers I was vastly underrating more than those two, and this effectively serves as a mea culpa. When I wrote my 100 greatest IndyCar drivers list in the lead up to the 100th running of the Indy 500 in 2016, I did not have Sharp on it but after doing further research on his teammate comparisons, I can see in retrospect that I was wrong and even when considering the drivers who have emerged in recent years like Josef Newgarden, Álex Palou, Pato O’Ward, and Colton Herta, I definitely still consider Sharp a top 100 IndyCar driver NOW. I bought into the popular narrative of him as some mid-pack hack because I was a loyal CARTisan back then (but admittedly a bigger NASCAR fan at that time), and I guess one can call this my penance for that.